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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Chelsea Ritschel

Billie Lourd wears gown honouring late mother Carrie Fisher in first photos from wedding to Austen Rydell

Getty Images

Billie Lourd subtly honoured her late mother Carrie Fisher with the wedding gown she wore to marry Austen Rydell.

Lourd, 29, and Rydell, 29, exchanged vows over the weekend during a ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

For the occasion, the Scream Queens and American Horror Story star wore a custom off-the-shoulder Rodarte dress, which she told Vogue she chose because of the designers’ connection to her mother.

“I discovered Kate and Laura [Mulleavy, Rodarte’s designers] after they interviewed my mom for an article in 2014 and immediately fell in love,” Lourd explained. “So when I started thinking about who I wanted to design my wedding dress, they were the first people who came to mind.”

According to Lourd, the choice was fitting because she has always been a “massive fan” of the pair’s work, and “thought their elegant, ethereal, unique style was a perfect fit for [her] - kind of - elegant, ethereal, unique personality,” and because she “felt a strong connection to them because of their connection to [her] mom”.

“And because they are California gals just like me!” she added.

The design process was easy, according to Lourd, who recalled how the first dress the design duo brought out for her to try “turned out to be exactly what I wanted”.

While she noted that the ease with which she found her wedding gown was “every gal’s dream,” she told Vogue that the one change that was required was changing the colour of the gown from green to white.

To fit the “vibe” of the couple’s beach wedding, which took place at sunset, Lourd said they “decided to make the underlayer of the dress out of sequins,” joking: “The underlayer of my personality is also made of sequins, so it just felt right.” The final result was a tulle off-the-shoulder gown with a full skirt.

In addition to the wedding dress, Lourd also paid tribute to her late mother with her shoes and jewellery. According to Lourd, her René Mancini shoes were chosen by her father, who found them one day when he was “walking around town shopping and came upon the store and found the perfect shoe”.

“They reminded him of the shoes my mom used to wear in the ’90s,” she told Vogue, adding that the manager of the store told her father when he came to pick up the shoes that her mom “used to shop at their store in New York City in the ’90s.”

“The perfect shoe turned out to literally be the perfect shoe. It was serendipity!” Lourd said.

To complete her bridal look, Lourd wore her engagement ring, which features a diamond reset from the ring that her dad proposed to her mom with, and her mother’s favourite ring, a blue fire opal that the actor said Fisher used to wear all the time.

For her something old, Lourd wore a pair of vintage Neil Lane diamond studs given to her by her father. She borrowed a ring given by her mother to a close friend for her something borrowed, according to Vogue.

In photos shared from the wedding to her Instagram on Tuesday, the actor and Rydell can be seen kissing under a canopy of feathers, and smiling as they stand hand-in-hand on the sand.

In the caption, Lourd added emojis depicting the numbers 3, 12, 22, in honour of the couple’s 12 March wedding date.

The first look at the couple’s nuptials prompted an outpouring of congratulatory comments from fans and loved ones, with many sharing their well-wishes.

“Awww so beautiful, congratulations to you both, your mom would be so happy and proud!!” one person commented, while another said: “Beyond happy for you both! Congratulations.”

Someone else added: “You look like a princess!!! Congratulations.”

Lourd and Rydell met in January 2011, according to Vogue, when they were both attending New York University. The couple became engaged in June 2020, and welcomed their first child together, son Kingston Fisher, in September of that year.

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